Both the Salvation Army and the United Way have fallen short of their respective fundraising goals for the year.

Facing at least a third year of lower-than-hoped donation totals, the United Way was forced to cut its disbursements to its service agencies, even at the same time using up the last of a donation reserve fund collected over the past decade to shore up its financial support.

The Salvation Army found itself in a similar position, with Lt. Brian Bump saying he’s likely cut as much as he can from the group’s budget without affecting services to the community, assuming it eventually reaches its goal of $90,000 by the end of January, with about $12,000 left to go.

For the United Way, another year of failing to meet the campaign goal of more than $260,000 means a tighter belt both at the non-profit but also in the dollars it distributes to 13 services agencies across nine counties in northeast Missouri.

“We will be able to enable our agencies to continue to care for and serve the community,” said United Way of Adair County/Northeast Missouri Director John Dungan. “But they’ll not be able to provide as much as they’d be able to if fully funded.”

The United Way finished its annual campaign with about $195,000 in pledges and donations for 2013, short of its goal of $264,781, which was even lower than the goal of $275,000 in previous years.

This is at least the third year the United Way has collected only about 75 percent of its fundraising goal, leading to the use of about $50,000 in donation reserves, collected over the past decade, and disbursed in the past three years.

Dungan said the service agencies will be receiving about $17,000 less in funding, little more than $1,000 each if equally split.

“If we get more, we’ll be able to distribute that, as well,” Dungan said.

Referring to charitable giving as a lingering economic indicator, Dungan said he believed 2012, and especially the fall months during the bulk of the donation campaign, were clouded by financial and political uncertainty leading to lower donations and giving.

“There was not a sense that things were growing at a pace to enable [people] to expand and do new things, with the election, the drought, the ‘fiscal cliff.’ People’s anxieties were stirred up,” he said.

At the same time, he noted that the total of $195,000 is “a lot and does a lot of good.“

He compared the act of giving to being there after a house fire and wrapping a blanket around a now-homeless family.

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“I’m not able to be there every night when that happens and most people aren’t able to, but by donating, they can be there and can give that help to that family or can get that kid at the YMCA a membership he might not have had otherwise,” Dungan said. “It’s a chance to be there in a concrete way.”

At the Salvation Army, the lower donations will not immediately mean cuts to services, to the food provided at the pantry or the utility-payment assistance during the winter, but it may mean families are turned away during a time of need if the group has to continually pare back its offerings and availability, Bump said.

“We’re putting it in God’s hands,” he said. “He provides.”

The shortfall of about $12,000 would likely have been accounted for if the Salvation Army had been able to provide debit and credit card readers during its Red Kettle Drive, Bump estimated, saying he would expect donations at the kettles to increase 10 or 20 percent.

“People don’t carry cash with them,” he said. “We’re hoping to work with a bank and our headquarters to see if we’ll be able to accept credit cards soon.”

The kettle campaign brought in about $36,500, which went into the larger total of $78,500 to the goal of $90,000.

And donations are still being accepted and can be either mailed to P.O. Box 1048 or dropped off at the Salvation Army office at 1004 W. Gardner St. in Kirksville.

“The money stays here locally,” Bump said. “It’s deposited in a local bank and all that stays here.”

The funding is used to support the agency’s operations and its emergency canteen, its food assistance, utility assistance and service programs throughout the community. Bump said that during December, with the pantry open only one day a week, 500 families from the Adair County area received food and a Christmas dinner.

But throughout the campaign, Bump said he and his wife Melissa encountered many “wow” moments thanks to the community. Whether it was opening a red kettle and seeing a check for $1,000 or personally taking donations from area services agencies or a food drive organized locally that raised 2,500 pounds of food.

“Sometimes you just sit back and see the giving and go, ‘Wow,’” Bump said.